75 



All idea that ihe anhiitiL-d in the Lepidoptcra are net-like and 

 not, as they seem to me, branch-like, has excused the classification, 

 especially of the Bombycidae, adopted by v. lleineman and Stau- 

 dinger, by which Subfamily groups are accorded Family rank, and 

 so incongruous a sequence is adopted, that this would seem the end 

 sought, rather than a natural arrangement of the Moths. No or 

 little allowance is made for comparative characters, and the severity 

 of tlie generic classification has permitted no adequate comprehen- 

 sion of these softer zoological forms. We miss any reference to 

 American genera (without which perhaps no true limitation can be 

 decided npon), either as illustrated by American writers or by the 

 pens of European authors who have investigated so largely the Lepi- 

 dopterous Faunae of other continents, v. lleineman establishes 

 the European genns Scodra, without reference to Guenee's Leptina, 

 from America, Avhich it seems shonld have been compared.' On the 

 other hand Packard, in 1864, has indicated in several cases the com- 

 parative generic position of European Bombycidae, and, in 1865, we 

 have drawn attention to relationships between the Sphingidae of 

 either continent, and in particular to the position which the Euro- 

 pean Macrosila convolvuli and Sphinx ligustri occupy with regard 

 to the American species of the two genera. 



I give here a catalogue of our North American species referable 

 to Herrich-SchaeflFer's Family Cymatoiiliorina, for Avhich I prefer 

 Boisduval's earlier term, and regard them as forming a sub-family 

 of the Noctuidae. Alone of any of the divisions of the family 

 heretofore proposed, they possess a distinctive structural feature, 

 found in the course of the costal nervure of the secondaries. 



1 Auf Seite 17, v. Heineman's Schmetterlins^e Deutschlands und der Schweiz, steht, Z. 9, v. 

 unteii, "bei der Hesperiengattung Cydopaedes die ninterschienen auch mit Mittelspornen." 

 Schlagt man, Seite 115, d. Gattung auf, so findet sicli geradc des Gcgenthcil angegebeii : "Uin- 

 terschieueii uur mit Endsporuen." 



